Holy Cow!  These pics actually loaded how I wanted them to!  We went next to Dubuque, Iowa to see my cousin Ann and her husband, Jim.  Ann is the older sister to Bob and Jean.  We stayed in Wisconsin next to a dairy farm and watched the cows graze day and night. dubuque is on the western shor of the mighty Mississippi River and was home to boatyards which made these giant paddle wheel boats.  This is one in front of the Mississippi museum and aquarium. mark got to live out another fantasy as a riverboat pilot along with Sam Clemons.   This is the smokestack and boiler for a steam engine.  See the signs in front for scale. Burial mounds over 2000 years old were found in East Dubuque.  This is in Illinois where we went on to the town of Galena, home of U. S. Grant and 17 other Civil war generals.  Ann and Jim, it was a pleasure seeing you again!  Love to all the Brimm’s and Pfaff’s!

I don’t know what I am doing differently with these photos, so bear with me.  We took old Hoover for a walk in the woods and through the meadows.  Along the way we saw some Jacks-in-the-Pulpit, and this robin’s egg.  Hoover ranged far ahead of us and at one point flushed some deer.  What a great time, yes, in the wind and rain.

 Ok.  These pictures are starting to bug me.  We went through Missouri to get to Iowa.  We have been in rain and wind and weather hell-bent for leather since we left Austin.  Hope it all changes soon!  This is Bob and Jean Brimm, two of my four cousins. We had a great time with them along with Bob’s wife Kris and their dog Hoover.

 They had never met Mark in all these years and we’re glad to meet the myth and legend. Here is an old picture of our grandparents with the three sisters, Betty, Peggy, and Joanna.Here are the girls a little older.  Grandma is in the back then Betty, Joanna, and Peggy.  How beautiful were they?!  Pap-Pap must have shuddered when the boys started coming around!

Well, the pictures loaded backwards this time.  A continuing learning curve!  However, Oklahoma!  Why would we go there you may ask.  Because of Linda and Earl Matthews. Linda was a sorority sister way back when and we have kept in contact for almost 50 years.  They visited us in NC, so we treated ourselves to seeing them again.  Earl is one of the nicest guys alive and he arranged for us to see this incredible dam with a class of third graders.  Felt like I was back helping Emily with her class.  Anyway, this dam is a mile long and has unusual arches in it’s structure.  The generators live below the dam and empty out into this prime fishing area.   Behind the dam is a lake with over 1300 miles of shoreline.  We drove past it for two days.  In Claremore we ran across the largest totem pole in the world.  Linda and Earl ar standing in front of it and yes, it was raining again.  We also  visited the boyhood home and memorial of Will Rogers.  We watched a great old movie of his called the Ropin’ Fool.  Incredible all the tricks he could do!So now you see why we had so much fun here!  Old friends are the best!

 Dallas/Fort Worth, the final stop on our Texas  adventure.  The beautiful building is called The Red Courthouse and is now a museum of Texas history.

 This building needs no explanation.  It is the book depository from which JFK was assasinated from the sixth floor above the white door.

 The Fort Worth Stockyards are an interesting destination.  From a defunct cattle shipping operation to a tourist destination, it has survived the decades.   Cattle are driven through town twice daily but not parked down this street. They hang out here. This is an old roundhouse for the railroad which still takes tourists on a fun hour ride up and down the line.  It is the Old Grapevine Special and we had a great time remembering the railroad ties to both our families.The fun did not stop here.  We were entertained by Mother Nature to a really fantastic light and sound show one night and the next to a spate of tornadoes.  Sorrowfully the tornadoes took out a town south of where we were camped but luckily they missed out own little “tornado magnet.”